Taking another path
by velli9
Summary: Our choices define our path. This path only led to death and destruction. So, as the Destroyer of Time, he decided to go back and create another path for him and his comrades to walk on.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

**After a year, I am writing again. I want to continue my other fanfics and I'll do it, but I have to find inspiration first.**

**About this fic, I have always wanted to write about time travel, no matter how cliché it is. And, DGM has great potential for that. I mean, Allen is called The Destroyer of Time! I know that this fic will sound like most of the time travel fics you will find out there where the protagonist goes back in time to save everyone from dying, but I don't really care about that. :P**

**Anyway, this is unbetaed and I should probably try to find a Beta reader, but I have no idea what I have to do. (sweatdrop)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own DGM or anything to do with it. I don't even own the idea of time travel.**

* * *

The final battle has come to an end. The Millennium Earl and the clan of Noah were dead, but so were the exorcists. The only living thing in radius of kilometers was Allen Walker, Exorcist and Noah, and he was barely clinging to life. But he would welcome death if it came. After all, what was the point of living and walking forward, if you were alone?

As he lay there, Allen stared at the sky. It was clear of clouds, and the sun was shining brightly, as if it was celebrating. Couldn't the heavens shed tears for his comrades, for he no longer could?

"Heh… I wonder what the others would say if they saw me like this?"

Kanda would scowl and give him his famous "tch". He would throw insults and try to kill him. Somewhere in between he would ask why was Allen giving up I a way that only people, who were close to him, would understand.

Lavi would be shocked. Maybe even speechless. Then he would shake himself out of his stupor, grin at him and tell him to continue what he did best. Walking forward. Then he would give him a hand and help him up, until he could stand on his own two feet.

Lenalee. The sweet Chinese girl would let her emotions take control. She would give him her "slap of love", then cry, asking him why, why after everything they have been through, after all their sacrifices, he was letting death win?

Really, why? All his life he defied the odds. He returned his father to life as an akuma, and survived. He went through Cross' so called "training". He cheated death as well as he cheated at poker. After all, he had a hole in his heart. He managed to reconstruct his Innocence and turned it into an even more powerful weapon. He had a Noah inside of him, and after a while, the exorcist learned how to work together with Neah. All his life he walked forward and created his own path to walk on. But, if thing were a little bit different, if he was a little bit stronger, a little bit faster, they wouldn't have died. The light in Lenalee's eyes would have never left, Lavi would still be irritating Bookman and Kanda. Kanda himself would still be calling him a beansprout, as annoying as it was. And he wasn't even that short anymore. He was a third of an inch taller than the Japanese man. Yes, it wasn't much, but it was something.

"Crown Clown, Neah, are you there?" Allen asked the seemingly empty air. He was answered with the familiar hum of his Innocence and a "Yes, nephew" from Neah.

He knew his friends would want him to keep walking forward. He knew that. But, if they weren't there, it wouldn't be the same. When they died, he felt as if he was dying from the inside, slowly and agonizingly.

"When I first met her, Hevlaska said that I would destroy Time. Neah, you are the Noah of Destruction. Do you think…?"

He knew they wouldn't be the same. But he almost wanted for them to never to become again what they were before they died. They bore too many scars, physical and emotional. He never wanted that for them. Only to protect them and save them.

"I don't know, nephew. Even if we do destroy a part of time, or even manage to create a rip in it, time itself is too indefinite. We don't know if you would go back to before you were born, or after, and there is the question of your own existence. You could be destroyed, have the body you have now or take over your younger one. The possibilities are too much."

But this time, he would be there. He would be stronger and more experienced. While he still had his ideals and didn't want to take a life, this was war and naivety wasn't going to get him anywhere. He had already killed humans (even if they were Noah), and would kill them again if it was to keep his friends' innocence intact for a little bit more. He didn't matter. Only his friends in the Black Order and over the world.

"I'm willing to try. For them, I would do anything. And, given my current condition, I wouldn't be able to fulfill my purpose. You remember it, don't you? My right arm is for the humans, the left is for the akuma. I am the last one able to wield Innocence. The akuma are too much and the humans too little. I won't be able to save both in time. I will probably die from blood loss before my wounds would even start closing."

He was the last one. His Innocence was the last one too. The legendary Heart of Innocence. The last crystal blessed by God.

Would God give him a chance? After all, he did ruin the peace in heaven when he called Mana's soul so long ago, only because he didn't want to see the truth. Dead people don't come back to life. But, wasn't he selfish once again? Didn't he want to go back, because he didn't want to accept the fact that they were dead? He wanted to be next to them, but, in that case, why did he let them die? Did he even deserve to try to go back?

It didn't matter. He would try anyway. They deserved to live, to find happiness. To have another chance. He would give it to them, no matter what the price for interfering with time was.

"Innocence, activate"

He didn't have to say the words. He did anyway. It was too quiet. I reminded him that they were dead, and that maybe he would never be able to hear their voices.

Allen felt the familiar cloak of Crown Clown wrap around his body and help it stand up, the silver mask covering half of his face. As he pulled the Sword of Exorcism from his left arm, he let his skin turn ashen gray and felt the seven stigmata engraving into his forehead.

"Full release"

Just like when he was trying to save Suman, just like when he was fighting Tyki in the Ark, he willed for his Innocence to go past its own limits. The cloak gave a weak shudder and began moving. The feathery material that could be harder than steel concentrated on two spots between his shoulder blades. It created hollow bones and entirely new muscles, with soft feathers covering them. Each wing was as big as him, and they were whiter than newly fallen snow, which gave off the impression that they were glowing slightly.

Allen panted slightly and gave a little wince when the stigmata started bleeding. But he had to endure. For him to use the full potential of the powers his Innocence and Noah genes gave him, they had to be in perfect balance. Otherwise, he would destroy himself from the instinctual battle between the blessed crystal and the Dark Matter.

No words were needed. He just poured everything in his blade. His power, his longing, his guilt, his hope to have a chance to create another path. His wish to see them again. Lenalee, Lavi, Kanda, Komui, Miranda, Crowley, Marie, the forever faithful Timcampy, the generals, the Order, even his personal stalker, who in the end gave his life for him, Link.

The broadsword pulsed in his hand. The white-haired male felt everything he had stored in the blade release in that single movement.

He almost didn't believe his eyes when he saw the rip in space in front of him. It showed only darkness, but the shadows in it almost seemed to be alive. Allen took a deep breath and took a step forward. He entered the seemingly endless black void with only one though in mind:

'I shall continue walking forward, and this time, I will save you'

* * *

**So, this is the end of the prologue. Just in time for the new year. I wish you all to smile every day, to love and be loved, and have good things happen to all of you!**

**I appreciate constructive criticism, but if you want to flame, go ahead! I amuse myself with seeing how far people can go when insulting someone they don't know. :D Well, I amuse myself even when my classmates insult me, so it wouldn't matter very much.**

**Anyway, thank you for reading and have a very successful year! **

**velli9**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**AN: First, I want to thank the seven people who followed my story ( you know who you are :) ), the two that favored and Casting Moonlight for writing that wonderful review. It really brightened up my day and also gave me the will to write when my muse tried to go on a vacation :P. I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but I had term exams all month and didn't have time to write. Gomenasai!**

**So, let's begin. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own DGM or any of its characters. I don't even own the idea of time travel. ;(**

Allen looked around. Or at least tried to. He saw nothing, he smelt nothing, he heard nothing, he felt nothing. He wasn't sure if he was laying or standing on his feet. He wasn't even sure he existed anymore.

"Allen Walker"

This voice was full of contradictions. It was a whisper, yet louder than a scream. It was cold and warm, male and female. It made Allen shudder and relax at the same time.

"You are alive, yet you are here. What is your purpose for invading the realm of God?"

The white-haired male didn't even need to think. His reply was instant.

"I know I don't deserve it. I know I'm being selfish, again. But they do. They deserve another chance. I want to show Lavi that humans don't only create wars. I want to hear Lenalee say again "I'm home, Brother." and see Komui hug her. I want Kanda to find Alma and peace again. I want to give them hope, to give them happiness, to give them life. I don't care what happens to me. I just want to see their smiles again."

"Very well, child. I, the one you humans call 'God', shall give you, The Destroyer of Time and my last apostle, the chance to fix the mistakes of the past. Use it wisely, for there will not be another one."

"I will."

* * *

Allen woke up to see a slightly familiar ceiling. Though, he only saw it through his right eye.

'Where am I? More important, when am I?'

He raised his left arm. Luckily, it was the same charcoal black of Crown Clown. It remembered him.

'Neah?'

…

It was silent for a second, then he heard a quiet snore from the insides of his mind. Allen shook his head with slight amusement and a small fond smile on his lips. Sometimes Neah could be a bit too lazy for his own good.

The white-haired male rose from his laying position to a sitting one and scanned his surroundings.

A door, a window, a chair with his Master's old coat and Timcanpy on it, a wardrobe, some of his childhood clothes on the floor with an empty packet of cigarettes next to them… Wait, Tim?

Allen stared at the little golden ball with wings. It stared back. He poked it with a finger. That wasn't his wisest decision.

"GUAAAAAAH!"

* * *

"GUAAAAAAH!"

Cross sighed slightly. The brat was probably having a nightmare again. The left his glass of wine on the table, nodded silently at Mother and went upstairs. Needless to say, what he saw wasn't what he expected to see.

* * *

Allen cursed at the fact that he screamed so easily. When you are in war, you have to keep silent no matter what happens or how much you are hurt. Otherwise, you die. But, he was a lot younger, so his body and nerves weren't as used to pain as they were before.

He was startled out of his struggle to keep Tim from eating his hand when his Master entered the room.

He should have guessed. Cross Marian just wasn't the type of person to go anywhere without his coat. But, he had come with terms with Cross' disappearance long ago. So long ago in fact, that he never even imagined that he would see him again.

That only made it harder. True, Cross wasn't an example for a good teacher, far from it really, but he was there when he was trying to come with terms with Mana's death. He showed him the cruel and unfair side of the world they lived in, but he taught him how to fight, saved him and his friends in the Ark.

So seeing Cross with his seemingly untamable, but somehow always in order, blood red hair, unblemished white shirt and cigarette in hand-made Allen feel as like someone was using his heart as a pincushion.

"Oi… What the hell is going on here, brat?"

Even through the pain, the white-haired boy felt the happiness bubbling inside him. So, he gave an instinctual response.

"Do you really think I know? I only poked him and now he is trying to bite my hand off!"

Cross raised an eyebrow. Or was it two? With that mask of his, you never know.

"I thought you were smarter than that, brat. I guess I overestimated you."

Allen's mouth twitched slightly upwards as he lay on the bed again.

"Yeah… I guess you did."

* * *

"LENALEE!"

He saw her fall. He tried to catch her, to be next to her. But he couldn't. If he tried, he would be killed. If he died, he would fail to keep his promise.

"Promise me, Allen-kun. Promise me you won't die,"

He kept his promise. But at what cost? She died alone, on the cold rubble that was once a part of the great Black Order. Her body, cold and broken, covered in her own blood and the blood of her enemies. But that wasn't the worst. Her deep, amethyst eyes, the windows to her soul, were dull and lifeless. Her soul wasn't there. She wasn't there. And that hurt most of all.

"Lenalee!"

* * *

Allen woke up with a gasp, Lenalee's name almost leaving his lips.

He felt his body shudder as he walked towards the window. The full moon shone with its cold light, making everything he saw as clear as day. The house was cold and Cross, Mother and Baba were asleep. So he went in the backyard and trained until he was ready to fall unconscious. And then he trained some more.

* * *

Cross became accustomed to finding the brat he was taking care of passed out in the backyard. At first it was really weird, sure, but when you are an Exorcist, you have accept weird things and adapt to them. Otherwise, in the just one year that Komui was a supervisor, he would have killed every member of the Order for just looking at his currently eleven year old sister.

But, as amusing as it was to find the idiot kid out cold every morning, Cross knew that if they stayed here any longer, the Order or the Noah would find them. Or both. But those three things weren't an option. So he ordered the brat to prepare for a trip. A very long one.

* * *

Allen was different. The kid was still annoyingly polite, but that's it. Maybe it was just the way he held himself or the way that he walked without a sound or even the fact that the child always scanned his surroundings for places to hide and escape roads. Even the death of a parent wasn't enough to cause such a drastic change. His eyes were as cold as ice and as hard as stone, but somehow they held a haunted and tired look. It was only a look he only saw in survivors from war, ones that had lost way too much and took away lives. A child, as annoying as children could be, wasn't supposed to have such eyes. Even if that child believed he killed his own father.

As Cross walked and mulled over the enigma that was his student, Allen followed him without a sound. Sure, it irritated him slightly that he had to carry the entire luggage while Cross strided forward like he owned the place, but the white-haired exorcist (now in training) couldn't help but admit that it was a good strength and stamina training.

* * *

**Two years later…**

The day had started quite normally. Allen had woken up at dawn, only to find out that Cross had already taken his winnings from last night's rounds of poker and gone out to spend them on drinking various types of wine. Or on getting laid. Allen didn't care. He just wandered around the town while avoiding debt collectors, who no doubt would find him sooner or later. This day was like yesterday, and the day before that, and the whole month before. So, there was absolutely no reason for today to be any different. But, like Lavi had said long ago, he was Mr. Unlucky-boy. So, as per Murphy's Law, what can go wrong, will go wrong.

Allen was surprised when his eye saw thirteen mummified souls that indicated Akuma Level 2 and about twenty, maybe more, Level 1. That could only mean that there was Innocence in this town, and there were Exorcists who were trying to obtain it. Given the rate the souls were freed, he guessed the Exorcists weren't experienced enough for the amount of Akuma.

It wasn't a hard choice. The mask of Crown Clown was enough to hide his identity, so he activated his Innocence and sprinted towards the explosions.

* * *

The moment he reached the battle and scanned the new surroundings his breath hitched. His body couldn't move, his heart sped up and his eyesight went slightly blurry.

The Exorcists were familiar. Painfully so. They wore the same type of uniform he first saw them in. They had the same hair. They had almost the same fighting style. But they were smaller, and smaller meant weaker. Without help, they wouldn't survive the battle.

A fifteen year old version of Kanda was fighting two Level 2 Akuma while at the same time guarding a shining piece of Innocence. It was clear that he was beggining to wear out as he was panting and sporting quite a few bruises and scratches.

A fourteen year old Lenalee with her hair out of her usual pigtails was jumping from Akuma to Akuma, destroying them bit by bit. But she was slowing down, and one of the Level 2s didn't miss the opportunity to try to take her out of the fight. It threw a punch at her with it's overly large arms that resembled claws, and sadly, it didn't miss. Lenalee's small and fragile body slammed into a wall and several cracks were heard. Her body fell lifelessly on the ground and didn't rise.

'No! I can't allow her to die! Not again!'

Allen almost didn't feel his body running. He just wanted to feel her heart beating, to see her breathing. He was by her in a second, relief flooding his senses when he saw that she was just unconscious. The white-haired boy used pieces of Crown Clown's cloak to bandage the injures that were bleeding the most as fast as he could. His left eye showed him that the akuma were circling around the Japanese teen.

"Kaichu Ichigen!"

White transparent insects with red eyes flew out of Mugen and managed to destroy a Level 2 and severely injure another. But the smoke from the explosion prevented Kanda from seeing the purple glowing orb heading rapidly his way.

Allen jumped between the orb and Kanda, letting Crown Clown to spread and grow stronger, protecting them from the Dark matter.

"Tch. Who the hell are you?"

'As polite as ever, I see.'

"A friend." Allen answered.

"Do you really think I'd believe a beansprout that can't even show his face?"

"No, but seeing that we're about to get killed by akuma, don't you think that we should concentrate on the fight?"

Kanda's eyes narrowed as he looked at the Akuma that were strangely not attacking, like they were waiting for the Exorcists to finish their short talk. Hn, how polite.

"Tch."

The Japanese teen didn't say anything else as he lunged at the Akuma in front of him.

Allen looked at him with a fond smile. 'Good old Kanda. I missed you, you bastard.'

With a small chuckle, Allen raised his left arm at the akuma and slashed.

* * *

**So, this is it for now. I don't know when I'll update, because I have been a little depressed. One of my favourite classmates is leaving our school and is going to announce it officially next week. But since I'm one of his friends, he decided to tell me early. I'm happy he thinks we're close enough for him to tell me, but I'm sad that he's leaving. From first grade, I have talked often with only four guys and only two of them are in the same school (but not for long). He was the only guy that didn't have any romantic feelings towards me. It was a refreshing change because right now I'm not interested in getting a boyfriend. I only realised I considered him as a dear person to me when he told me he was leaving. It hurts. I'm going to miss him.**

**Now that I'm finished with my moping for now, I'm going to tell you that I appreciate constructive criticism and any flames will only serve to amuse me. **

**I hope you liked the chapter.**

**velli9**


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